This post contains spoilers for "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
This is it. This is the blog about what is perhaps my favorite movie of all time: "The Nightmare Before Christmas." My fascination with this movie began in about seventh or eighth grade. I'd seen the movie with my family when I was much younger, but when I watched it again in seventh grade, I comprehended so much more and fell in love with the characters and animation.
The film is about a skeleton man named Jack Skellington who lives in Halloweentown with his dog Zero. Jack is the "Pumpkin King," which was a title given to him by the residents of the town for being the scariest member. Jack is unhappy with his current situation, though, and while walking through the cemetery after Halloween and being watched by a ragdoll named Sally, he stumbles through a door to place called Christmas Town. He is fascinated and brings elements of this place back to his home, but when he tries to tell the townsfolk about the joys of Christmas, they take it to be a frightening place and want to take over Christmas. Jack enlists the help of the local trick-or-treaters, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, to kidnap Santa so they can take over his holiday. This doesn't go out the way he planned and Santa and Sally are kidnapped and almost eaten by a creature named Oogie Boogie, but Jack saves them both. Santa leaves and both towns return to their own holidays, while Jack and Sally kiss under the full moon.
The movie is claymation, meaning that the characters and most of the set are made of clay. This was the first thing I was in awe of the movie for. I had never seen claymation before, and when I first saw this film, I was astonished by the amount of time it must have taken to film all of the scenes and move all of the characters around to be in just the right positions. How did Tim Burton do this? I wondered. How much time had this taken? According to this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-LXKoNOMj0, it took them three years to make it. The creators of this movie utilized this period of time well, in my opinion, to make a vivid, imaginative film that has entertained me countless times.
The other part of this movie that I absolutely love is the music. The singing and instrumentals are all gorgeous and hilarious. I loved it all so much that I purchased the soundtrack, which is phenomenal. They are songs that I could listen to on repeat for a very long time. The songs themselves are simply hilarious, and all of them hide some deep hint towards the movie's plot. The instrumentals are soothing and haunting, and Danny Elfman, the composer, did a wonderful job.
The final element of this movie is the romance. I feel like Sally's love for Jack is intense and passionate, even though they are both sort of undead creatures. Sally stands up to her creator, sneaks out for Jack, and even tries to save him after she has a horrible vision of how his Christmas will turn out. Her feelings seem to be un-returned, but when Jack finally realizes that he loves her, that's when I lose it. The romance is so well done and so sweet.
So there you have it. Thanks for reading! (By the way, if you couldn't guess, I would rate this film like 9 million out of 10.)
No comments:
Post a Comment